11 Songs That Changed Modern Country Music

This isn't your granddaddy's country music any longer. Heck, it's barely your dad or older sister's country music!

Certain songs changed country music in very definable ways. It's easy to trace country music's dalliance with hip-hop back to a certain song. It's just as easy to identify the moment bro-country started and stopped. In both cases it came down to a song — a great song — that altered the status quo.

There are 11 songs on this list of songs that changed modern country music, and each was released after the year 2000. The impact of some was forceful, but short-lived, while it's easy to see how others ("Redneck Woman," for example) are still impacting new generations of fans and artists today. Chris Stapleton,Trace Adkins and Jason Aldean make the list. Other genre-changing artists like Carrie Underwood and Eric Church do not, and that's no disservice to their cultural impact — they just changed the format over time instead of with one, definitive hit.

Did we miss anything? Share a song you think changed the way modern country music sounds when you share this with your friends on social media. It's a conversation, hopefully a civil one, as a case could be made for 111 songs! These 11 songs that changed modern country music were chosen by Taste of Country staff along with help from fans and readers.